Lukashenko Calls On CIS To Play Active Role In Resolving Conflicts In Post-Soviet Space

Published: 04-07-2017

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) should play an active role in resolving the conflicts in the post-Soviet space, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said in his interview with the interstate television and radio company Mir, APA reported.

Lukashenko said he believes that people's interests should be the top priority for resolving these conflicts.

“We need to resolve the problem of Transdniestria, Nagorno-Karabakh, or Ukraine's Donbass in the framework of the CIS. We sometimes don't do it not because it is impossible to accomplish but because different interests are at play. Yet the problem needs to be resolved,” stated the Belarus leader.

“Do you think people in Nagorno-Karabakh live well if they are constantly subjected to certain military problems? They just keep on living and hoping that something will not happen to them tomorrow, that a bomb will not drop on their heads. Is it normal? Absolutely not! Does anyone benefit from it? No one!” stressed the president.

“It is necessary to resolve all these CIS issues that are not hard to notice before thinking about future,” believes the Belarusian head of state. “While dealing with these issues, we will see new strategic avenues that we will have to act upon.”

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in December 1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.